Wait - sending my kids to school IS my mental health day! Oh - wait, you meant for them. ;) Hope you had a great day!

Fabulous idea. If I actually had a sitter, that is. So glad you get to spend some time with your kids without having to worry about all the household stuff!

Elizabeth - exactly. You never know when you'll meet the right person, and for some of us, it happens later. And that's okay. Another gift of being an older mom: savor. We savor the moments it's taken us so long to get to. Thanks for your comment - much appreciated!

You go, girl! I'm so glad you found yourself again. It's a BIG reason why I didn't mind those long training runs so much. I had great training partners and we'd chat the miles away, sometimes having deep conversations, and sometimes laughing so hard we almost peed ourselves! I felt like a person again - the woman I am BEYOND being a mom. I also try to run w/out the stroller, and was successful at it until last week. But it was kinda fun listening to my 4 1/2 year old chatter on and on. ;) Good for you and I am SO excited and proud of you. I know you can do it!!

Over from the workshop.. Sounds like you sure got wiser through it all. And what WOULDN'T we do for a KitchenAid? Love mine!

Exactly. My whole point is that IF you decide to breastfeed, you should be supported by our society, because then more women would try it and stick with it longer. Which is not to say that if you don't breastfeed you should be made to feel bad about that either!

You are so, so lucky. Seriously. I would give anything to have had smooth sailing when it came to nursing!

I hope my kids are still speaking to me when they're 11..and 15..and 21.. I think I'm happy with them being 6, 4 and 1 right now!

You notice how the most obnoxious kids never have their parents anywhere in sight? Coincidence? I think not! I hope he had dreams of boy eating monsters when he tried to sleep that night..

Thank you all for your thoughtful posts and for sharing your experiences. To me, support is definitely the key, and it needs to start before the baby is even born and continue for as long as we need it! And Jen S. - Milkalicious is AMAZING! They helped me get through the early days when everything was going wrong! LOVE them!

I'm a year post-delivery and these things are STILL inflated. Just waited for the boy to be weaned. The deflation process will probably shoot me into Riverside County.

This is a great - and important - post. Especially here in the OC, which is not the most racially diverse place. My kids are mixed-race (my husband is half-Korean and my kids also look half). They, too, observe the differences in people. It is, like you say, normal for them to "sort" and to see what's the same as them and what's not. When they point out that someone has "brown" or whatever, I always say, "Yes, people come in all shapes, sizes and colors." And you're right: the adults are the ones with the baggage.

Ack! Jen! I didn't even see this! But you are too funny! If only you could see your child at school, where they're licking furniture and walk around with their fingers up their noses! I swear, with my third, the "3 second rule" is now the "he can have it if the dogs don't get it first rule." LOL

Andrea - I feel your pain! Literally! Mely - Sage is fine, thanks for asking! Jennifer - Thanks!! See, when there's barf, I run in the other direction. It is Daddy's job - which is why it was so traumatic when she threw up on the floor in the doorway of a public restroom. i had to clean her all up!

What a beautiful, moving post. Being a mom is just so hard, isn't it? Especially when we want so much for our children. There is more than one way to become a mother, as you so eloquently pointed out, and we never know what the journey will entail. Thank you so much for sharing!